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The Duke of Windsor’s Sartorial Style | Suitings

Crit Rawlings, president of Oxxford Clothes at the time, dropped $12,650 on a silk suit. In all, the Duke’s 25 suits, sport jackets and formal outfits took in $773,145.

A double breasted navy wool suit with Grenadier (front buttons) and Welsh Guards Officer (sleeve buttons) buttons, worn on the 1936 Nahlin cruise. Jacket by Scholte, London labelled H.R.H. The Prince of Wales 25.4.31 Made of lightweight navy worsted. The matching pair of trousers were made by Forster & Son, London.

Grey and cream ribbed suit with Royal Yacht Squadron buttons and the side vents appear to have been added later. Jacket by Scholte, named and date 1938, and trousers by Forster & Son. The Duke was photographed in the USA in this suit circa 1943.

A beige and Brown houndstooth check suit, 1932. Jacket by Scholte has side vents. Trousers by Forster & Son. (For some reason, the photo was reversed.)

Navy pintripe suit with Royal Yacht Squadron buttons. Jacket by Metzel, New York and trousers by H. Harris, New York, 7.21.44

Two aluminium wallets with town clothes, and one for sports clothes. Inside are paper sheets with swatches of fabric attached. Hand written notes document where each garment was located (NYC, Paris, The Mill (French country retreat)). From the Sotheby’s catalogue blurb: “It serves as a very interesting and useful record of his entire wardrobe around 1960 . . . The swatch boxes show that he owned approximately 15 evening suits (of which six remain), over fifty-five lounge suits, of which thirty would have been kept in Paris. Only six or so remain of these, and only five of them relate directly to the swatch boxes. The majority of the formal and Highland dress detailed in the swatch boxes still remains in the collection as the Duke kept most of his formal wear in Paris and his Highland dress at The Mill, where he was fond of wearing it in the evening.”